Receive email updates when new Markets & Economy posts are available.

Markets & Economy

Filters

Sort by

Active Filters

Tag:

Today, most market watchers agree that rates are poised to move higher. That being said, the interest rate conversation is also quickly shifting toward what happens after the first policy rate hike. Will the Federal Reserve continue on a path of predictable hikes, or will policy adjustments be sporadic and small?

S&P 500 companies announced a record $133 billion in share buybacks in April, furthering a trend that has provided support to U.S. equity markets in recent years. The surge in companies buying back their own stock is getting a lot of attention these days.

Worldwide equity markets have had an impressive showing since emerging from the Great Recession. The run-up in prices has coincided with equities becoming broadly more expensive. Some regions offer more attractive opportunities than others from a valuation standpoint, but the overall environment has become generally more challenging.

A quick glance across global equity markets reveals that Japan has been among the strongest performing countries recently. The Nikkei 225 advanced roughly 40% in the 12 months through May, beating returns of U.S. and global indices such as the S&P 500 Total Return Index and MSCI All Country World by sizeable margins.

The nose dive in crude oil prices has been a major story across global economies and financial markets during recent quarters. Signs of weaker economic growth, coupled with unexpected incremental supply increases from countries such as Iran and Libya, dealt a crushing blow to the commodity last summer. Very quickly, the profitability dynamics of operating within the oil industry value chain changed dramatically.

Gaining a better understanding of active management in today’s evolving and sometimes volatile investment environment begins with a simple point: Not all active managers are alike. Since the market downturn of 2008, there has been a reappearance in industry dialogue of the claim that...

Since exiting the 2009 recession, the U.S. economy has been humming along at a rather slow pace, averaging 2.2% real annual GDP growth over the last five years. During this time, economic data has generally trended higher, labor markets have gradually healed, and the U.S. consumer has modestly deleveraged...

A European quantitative easing (QE) program has finally become reality. The European Central Bank (ECB) made its first sovereign bond purchases as part of the plan in early March. While U.S.-based investors are probably very familiar with the concept...

Water is arguably the most important natural resource on earth. Covering greater than 70% of the planet’s surface, its apparent abundance is deceiving. Fresh water is critical to humanity and represents only a fraction of the total water supply...

Three big moves in major financial markets during recent quarters should give investors reason to anticipate heightened volatility going forward, namely significant increases in the value of the U.S. dollar and Swiss franc, as well as...

Real estate investments bounced back last year from a lackluster 2013 to have their best performance in nearly a decade. Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)—companies that own and normally manage income...

In July we wrote about stock market valuations and their usefulness in forecasting future market performance. Specifically, we discussed a valuation metric called the cyclically-adjusted price-to-earnings ratio...

The downward move in oil prices has had far-reaching implications for the global economy. One area of impact is the high-yield debt market, where energy issues currently account for approximately 13%. As oil prices continued...

Greece continues to be a thorn in the side of its European brethren entering 2015. With the Greek parliament failing to elect a new president on December 29 in a third round of voting, the country will hold a snap general election on January 25...

In an election marked by the slimmest margin of victory in Brazilian history, incumbent President Dilma Rousseff of the center-left Workers’ Party defeated Aécio Neves of the centrist Brazilian Social Democracy Party on...

During recent months, the value of the U.S. dollar experienced a fairly swift and significant ascent relative to many other major global currencies. We attribute the bulk of the move to shifting expectations regarding...

Trends in initial public offerings (IPOs) are among the many capital market factors we monitor to help us gauge the current position of the market cycle. As the bull phase of a cycle progresses, investors seeking to get in on the ground floor of the next great...

The current economic and market environment is not one in which a rising tide of economic growth will lift all ships; actually, it’s quite the opposite. As businesses compete, the winners will largely succeed at the expense of the losers.